Holiday Vegetable Trays are a great idea to bring to a Christmas potluck or get-together. They’re easy to make and everyone seems to find at least one thing on the tray that they enjoy.

There will come a time, I promise you, when you will be asked not to bring fudge or toffee or some other delicious butter-laden treat to a holiday party but rather a vegetable tray. Yep, that’s right. And you know what? It’s okay, because you can make that veggie tray the most festive veggie tray ever to grace your neighbor’s annual white elephant gift party.

Here are some ideas on how to do just that.

I present to you- a holiday Festival of Vegetables if you will…with a bit of fruit and cheese added in for fun.

Many of these don’t necessarily come with instructions. From my own experience, start with green- I used sugar snap peas outlined in broccoli florets.

Then add color around it and “ornaments” on top of it. Everyone loved the olives! I cheated and made my veggie dip from a Ranch dressing packet too- so easy. I did try and make it a little more creative by putting the dressing in a hollowed-out bell pepper. Have fun and get creative!

Festive Christmas Veggie Tray Ideas:

For my platter above I wanted to make a simple Christmas tree. I started with green vegetables for the base and made the general shape of a Christmas tree. Then I added olives and grape tomatoes on top for ornaments and sliced bell pepper for garland. I put baby carrots around it for some additional color. I served ranch dressing in a hallowed out bell pepper. Everyone loved it!

This cute snowman has a ranch dressing-in-a-bowl head complete with olives for his face and a carrot nose. Quartered mushrooms in a bowl make up the middle snowball with a few sliced olives for buttons. The final bottom snowball is made from pieces of cauliflower. Additional vegetables are added around the sides for color!

This simple but elegant Christmas wreath vegetable tray is made from stems of asparagus, carrots and celery with some bell pepper and zucchini slices on top. Remember to blanch the asparagus first- I like to boil water in my tea kettle, then pour it on top of a quarters baker sheet where I’ve placed washed and cut asparagus. Let them sit in the boiled water for about 5 minutes, then pour off the water and chill the asparagus. You can blanch the asparagus up to 2-3 days ahead of when you plan to use it. You blanch the asparagus so it’s more tender and easier to eat. Otherwise it’d be very crunchy and woody- not tasty at all!

Santa here is made with red bell pepper strips for his hat, a cauliflower brim and peeled cucumber slices for his face. His beard is made from more cauliflower and grape tomatoes make up the top part of his Santa suit.

Standing vegetable platters are a bit tricky to make but SO cute! What you’ll do is take 2 heads of cauliflower and turn them horizontally. Use toothpicks to stack them together and then place his carrot nose and olive eyes with additional toothpicks. Other vegetables like bell peppers and cucumber spears are positioned around with kale for added greenery and fullness.

This is a simple Christmas tree made from broccoli and grape tomatoes with cauliflower and carrots around the perimeter to complete the picture. Hollowed out bell peppers at the bottom hold more carrots, tomatoes and ranch dressing.

Christmas Tree Vegetable Platter, The Best Thing I Ever Ate

I love this darling Christmas tree made with simple layers of cut vegetables. Broccoli, different varieties of tomatoes, cucumber, cauliflower, celery and bell peppers make up this darling tree.

This Christmas tree vegetable platter is made from broccoli and grape tomatoes. Slices of yellow bell pepper make up the star adorning the tree. They’ve also placed stick pretzels as the tree stem and “snow” on the ground made up of cauliflower.

This Christmas tree vegetable platter is made from broccoli, grape tomatoes and sliced of red bell pepper. Yellow bell pepper was used to make the star adorning the tree. Stalks of celery make up the tree stem.

3-D Christmas Tree of Vegetables

This 3-D standing Christmas tree is made by arranging broccoli and broccoflower around in a circle, using a toothpick to fasten layers as needed. Pearl onions, tiny tomatoes and yellow bell pepper stars are the ornaments with strips of bell pepper acting as garland. Cauliflower is arranged around the base as snow.

This 3-D standing Christmas tree is made by arranging broccoli around in a circle, using a toothpick to fasten layers as needed. A pineapple star sets on top of the tree and mounds of fresh, colorful vegetables surround the tree on the platter.

The ingredients for this veggie tray are pretty simple. Start by cutting your cauliflower into small bite-size pieces. Place them on your tray and then arrange into a snowman shape. You will also need additional veggies to surround your snowman. We chose carrot sticks for the top portion, because Olaf has a carrot for his nose and it was a cute match! Chop and peel whatever veggies you like and place them around Olaf. We used pretzel sticks for his arms and hair. I broke apart one pretzel stick and used it for his fingers. For the face, you can draw your own Olaf eyes, nose and mouth, then affix it to the top of your snowman.

Mock Christmas Tree Ornament Veggie Tray

This simple Christmas tree ornament veggie tray is made from arranging each vegetable in rows on a circular tray. Cut out the ornament topper and affix a hook to the top for the final touch!

This elegant Christmas Wreath is made from grape tomatoes and fresh mozzarella balls arranged in a circle on a bed of basil. Shake some salt & pepper on top and add a bowl of balsamic vinegar in the center to complete the dish.

This Christmas wreath vegetable platter is made from broccoli, grape tomatoes, cucumbers and slices of red and yellow bell pepper. Red bell pepper was used to make the bow adorning the wreath. Ranch dressing is placed in a bowl in the middle.

Comments

Oh veggie tray,<br />Oh veggie tray;<br />My heart delights<br />In thee today….<br /><br />(Sing it to the tune of &quot;Oh Christmas Tree&quot;–funny!). All kidding aside, those are some really great ideas for vegetable platters. I&#39;d be just fine curling up with one of those to munch on.